Only the Guilty Need Fear — But We’re All Guilty

"A short while back, just before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempted Christmas bombing, I heard a couple of people discussing online privacy rights on one of the CNN talking head shows. One of them quoted with approval this statement by Google CEO Eric Schmidt “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” If intrusive surveillance of online activity might prevent the next 9-11, this commentator suggested, then most us would accept it as the necessary price of security."